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Donald Sterling‘s legal issues aren’t just with the NBA: A former employee is claiming racial discrimination and sexual harassment in a lawsuit that was filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday.
Maiko Maya King claims to have been in a romantic relationship with the 80-year-old Clippers owner from 2005 to 2011, and says that she was later subjected to “a steady stream of racially and sexually offensive comments” when she was employed by him, according to the lawsuit.
Read the complaint here.
STORY: Donald Sterling Plans $1 Billion Lawsuit Against NBA
King was married at the time that she met Sterling, and claims that he continually encouraged her to leave her husband and come work for him.
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King, who is represented by Gloria Allred, claims that two years after she split up with Sterling in 2011, she began working for him. While he supported her financially and she worked for his foundation during their relationship, he also allegedly made comments about her African-American husband, including, “How could you be married to a black man?” and “Why would you bring black people into the world?”
STORY: L.A. Clippers Sold to Steve Ballmer for $2 Billion
Referring to his relationship with King, he said, “I want to take you out of the black world and put you into the white world”; when they would fight he told her to “move back to the ghetto with a black man.”
According to the complaint, after their 2011 breakup and the death of her father in 2013, King became his personal assistant and caretaker. He agreed to pay her $10,000 a month, a $100,000 bonus at the end of the year plus provide a house and car, claims King.
During that time she was introduced to V. Stiviano as Sterling’s girlfriend.
King goes on to claim that Sterling “dangled money only if she would have sex with him,” that he was “bored with V” and would give her bonuses if she could “help him to perform sexually.”
VIDEO: Donald Sterling Slams Magic Johnson, Attacks AIDS Status, Calls Anderson Cooper a Racist
Sterling continued, the lawsuit alleges, to spew racist venom: “Black people do not take care of their children. All they do is sit at home and smoke dope,” and “Mexicans just do drive-by shootings.”
When King continued to protest against his racial comments and sexual harassment, he retaliated by terminating her employment May 7, 2014, claims the lawsuit.
She continues to suffer from pain and mental suffering, and extreme mental anguish, says the complaint, and is seeking compensatory damages to be proven at trial.
The Hollywood Reporter contacted Sterling’s attorney Maxwell Blecher but he declined to comment.
On Friday, it was announced that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be buying the Clippers for a record-breaking $2 billion following Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA.
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